Yahoo has been getting it from all sides lately.

Last month Wired News ran a piece detailing how Yahoo missed a golden opportunity when Google’s creators looked to Yahoo for an infusion of cash. Not long after that, Google was able to turn down a $3 billion buyout offer from Yahoo.

Now Yahoo seems to have stepped on its own toes once again. TechCrunch reports;

Yahoo!’s recent addition MyBlogLog is making news again — and not for another security exploit (that was last weekend) or spammer gaming. Well, it is related to those two topics — Shoemoney, a notable blogger in the affiliate marketing world with a fairly large following of readers that like his insight on all things related to online marketing, has been banned from MyBlogLog.

The real funny thing is that the security hole Shoemoney blogged about had been discovered and posted publicly (in French language — translation here) over a month ago by eMich — yet as of this writing, that user hasn’t been banned.

Meanwhile, over at 901am, Duncan Riley details how using MyBlogLog on your blog could get you banned from AdSense.

MyBlogLog is not only tracking visits from other MyBlogLog members to your site (if you’re using the service) they are also tracking clicks on your ads, INCLUDING Adsense ads.

Services such as Alexa, Google Toolbar (both of which I use via the searchstatus plugin) and Compete send data on my surfing habits back to their respective companies, but they send MY data back, not the data of visitors to my sites, and I OPT IN TO those services, knowing to well the implications of doing so. MyBlogLog on the other hand is spying on my visitors (which I accept) but also their activity on each site (ad clicks), which I don’t accept. Notably I’ve also read recently (don’t have the link at hand) that prior to Yahoo’s acquisition of the company, MyBlogLog were trying to shop these stats to the highest bidder, so privacy of the data is questionable as well.

Are you using Adsense and MyBlogLog together? Remember the rule about not being able to disclose the CTR rates to third parties? MyBlogLog is gathering this exact data on your site if you’re using the service. Using Adsense with MyBlogLog could get you banned from Adsense!

As of 5 minutes ago I’ve removed MyBlogLog from my own personal blog. My Adsense account is too valuable to risk, and I’m outraged that MyBlogLog was stealing this data from my site. If you haven’t done so yet, I’d encourage everyone using the service to take it down immediately. For all it’s benefits (it’s still a fun idea) the risks far outweigh the benefits.

I had some sympathy a while back for Yahoo, always the bridesmaid, never the bride. But considering how desperately they seem to be stumbling around trying to best Google far too late in the game, Yahoo is beginning to look downright pathetic. Terry Semel needs to get his head out of his Hollywood background and learn how to compete on the internet.

[tags]Yahoo, MyBlogLog, Google, AdSense[/tags]